The hellish spring and early summer in aviation has led to a stampede among claim companies that help passengers get compensation. “In June we saw a threefold increase in the number of claims compared to May”, says Claudio Brosche, legal expert at Flightright in ‘De Tijd’. “In July there were even four times as many.” The largest ticket claim company in Europe is also an important player in our country. The company does not provide specific figures.
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Yource, the company behind, among other things, flight-delayed.be, does provide figures. Since the chaos at European airports started in April, Yource has processed more than 70,000 claims, of which more than 7,800 from our country. “That is three times as many as in the pre-corona year 2019. And we reject tens of thousands of claim applications per month,” says CEO and founder Tom van Bokhoven.
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At the height of the corona crisis, many airports and airlines had laid off staff on a large scale and had to look for new employees at lightning speed in the spring to absorb the travelers’ urge. This often hardly worked or did not work. This results in long queues at check-in, security or passport controls.
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Review: Fleming stuck at Schiphol for 24 hours due to staff shortage
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Tens of thousands of canceled flights
At the same time, the staff of many airlines revolted against the high workload this summer. This led to strikes and tens of thousands of canceled flights. In Belgium, there has been social unrest in recent months at the two largest airlines, Brussels Airlines and Ryanair.
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Both the Lufhansa subsidiary and the low-cost airline were on strike for three days in June and hundreds of flights had to be cancelled. More than 10,000 passengers were affected. As a sacrifice to the angry unions, Brussels Airlines canceled almost 700 summer flights to ease the workload.
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‘Force of the majority’
European consumers are well protected against cancellations and major delays in civil aviation. Apart from a refund of the ticket, travelers are often entitled to compensation that can amount to hundreds of euros. However, airlines are not eager to pay out and often invoke force majeure.
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Claims companies such as Flightright, Yource and Airhelp are responsible for the follow-up and any legal dispute with the airlines. In return, they ask for a commission of 25 to 30 percent on the compensation eventually acquired. Some companies also charge a filing fee in the event of a successful claim. Most of the claims Yource processes relate to low-cost airlines.
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Also read: After problems with Brussels Airlines compensation claim: these are your rights as a passenger (+)
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